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Trinity Love Jones, 9, was found slain in Hacienda Heights on March 5. Officials released her photo on Sunday when they disclosed her name. At left is an artist’s sketch of the then-unidentified girl released by investigators during a March 6 news conference. (Images courtesy Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department)

A couple will return to court next month to answer to murder charges in the slaying of the woman’s 9-year-old daughter whose body was discovered near a Hacienda Heights equestrian trail.

Former Long Beach resident Taquesta Graham, 28, and her boyfriend, 39-year-old Emiel Hunt, appeared Tuesday at Pomona Superior Court for an arraignment which was continued again. Their new arraignment date is May 21.

Both wore orange county jail jumpsuits, a waist chain and handcuffs. Hunt sat behind Graham. They didn’t speak with each other. They talked to their respective lawyers and answered the judge’s questions.

Taquesta Graham, 28, is a suspect in the slaying of her daughter, Trinity Love Jones. The body of the 9-year-old girl was found near a trail in Hacienda Heights on March 5, 2019. Graham’s boyfriend, Emiel Lamar Hunt, was charged with Love’s murder. (Courtesy photo Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department)

Emiel Lamar Hunt, 38, is accused of killing 9-year-old Trinity Love Jones whose body was found near a trail in Hacienda Heights on March 5, 2019. (Courtesy photo Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department)

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Trinity Love Jones, 9, was found slain in Hacienda Heights on March 5. Officials released her photo on Sunday when they disclosed her name. At left is an artist’s sketch of the then-unidentified girl released by investigators during a March 6 news conference. (Images courtesy Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department)

Hunt could receive a possible maximum sentence of 50 years to life in prison while Graham faces 26 years to life in prison.

The couple allegedly killed Trinity Love Jones on or about March 1 and dumped a duffel bag containing the girl’s body near an equestrian trail on Hacienda Boulevard the same day, according to sheriff’s homicide detectives. Her body was discovered March 5 by Los Angeles County Parks & Recreation employees doing maintenance work on the trail.

Investigators have not revealed how Love was killed.

The couple later headed to Texas where they were stopped at a border patrol check point in Sierra Blanca on March 8. Graham was arrested on a parole violation warrant. Hunt then returned to California and was arrested March 9 in San Diego.

She, Hunt and Love had lived with a relative in Long Beach, detectives said. They moved in 2018. Investigators said the trio said were homeless and had been living in a Santa Fe Springs motel and in Hunt’s vehicle.

Both suspects have a criminal record. Graham is a sex offender because she pleaded no contest in 2009 of trying to entice a girl for prostitution. Hunt pleaded guilty to one count of felony child abuse in 2005 and admitted to the allegation that he inflicted great bodily injury on a child under the age of 5 while committing a felony or attempted felony.

Graham is being held at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood while Hunt is in custody at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles.

Ruby Gonzales started working for the company in 1991. Since then she has written about cities, school districts, crimes, cold cases, courts, the San Gabriel River, local history, anime, insects, forensics and the early days of the Internet when people still referred to it as the "information superhighway." Her current beat includes breaking news, crimes and courts for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star News and Whittier Daily News. When not in crime reporter mode, she frequents the remaining bookstores in the San Gabriel Valley, haunts craft stores or gets dragged to eateries by a relative who is a foodie.

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